To judge from the notions expounded by theologians, one must conclude that God created most men simply with a view to crowding hell.

The imagination is the spur of delights... all depends upon it, it is the mainspring of everything; now, is it not by means of the imagination one knows joy? Is it not of the imagination that the sharpest pleasures arise?

Your body is the church where Nature asks to be reverenced.

Man's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as possible the person whom he loves. It is only by imitating the vices of others that I have earned my misfortunes.

Lust's passion will be served; it demands, it militates, it tyrannizes.

Lust is to the other passions what the nervous fluid is to life; it supports them all, lends strength to them all ambition, cruelty, avarice, revenge, are all founded on lust.

There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author.

The more defects a man may have, the older he is, the less lovable, the more resounding his success.

Dread not infanticide; the crime is imaginary: we are always mistress of what we carry in our womb, and we do no more harm in destroying this kind of matter than in evacuating another, by medicines, when we feel the need.